A rendering of the proposed towers at Preston Road and Royal Lane in Dallas’ Preston Hollow neighborhood. The tallest building will be 240 feet.
Courtesy of GFF Design
The Dallas partnership behind a hotly debated $800 million mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane has cut the height of its proposed towers — again.
Developer Leland Burk told The Dallas Morning News that the project’s hotel and condo high-rise will drop to 240 feet (19 stories) while the apartment tower will come down to 210 feet (18 stories) in a bid to soften community backlash.
Since October, Burk and team have cut 85 feet from the project’s tallest structure. His firm, Burk Interests, along with partner Greenway Investment Co., initially sought to build the hotel and condo tower at 325 feet (28 stories) and the apartment high-rise 275 feet (24 stories).
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The 240-foot proposed height is commonly referenced in the city’s development code and meant to match similar sites across the city. The cuts were made after conversations with neighbors, city planning commissioners and Dallas City Council members, Burk and the group said. Current zoning at the site allows for a maximum height of 54 feet.
“We’re doing everything we can to engender as much support in the community as we can. It’s going to be tough,” he said. “There are a lot of people that just don’t want to see anything above 54 feet, and that’s just not workable for a project like this. … This is the limit of what we can do.”
The new heights cut the number of proposed hotel rooms, apartments and condos in the towers. Under the new plans, there will be 50 or fewer condos and no more than 150 hotel rooms. The apartment high-rise will feature roughly 175 units. To compensate for the tower cuts, Burk added one story to the office mid-rise, bringing its height to 12 stories.
The modifications come weeks after City Council member Gay Donnell Willis held a jam-packed community meeting at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church near the site on May 18. The multi-hour meeting featured tense exchanges between community members and the development team.
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Nearly 30 people spoke in opposition to the project, with a majority expressing concerns about the height and traffic. Only six residents spoke in support of the project, and those who did were often shouted at or interrupted by audience members.
Residents around the site formed the nonprofit Preserve Preston Hollow to campaign against Burk’s development. The group has collected donations to fund a social media strategy, signs, a website, and to obtain drone footage around the site. The group’s slogan is clear — “No skyscrapers, no rezoning at Preston and Royal.”
Their petition has received more than 3,000 signatures to date. Doug Hazelbaker, a former Plano city planning commissioner who serves as a key figure in the nonprofit, said he was frustrated to learn about the height drop from a Dallas Morning News reporter rather than his elected officials.
“This is not a meaningful height concession,” Hazelbaker said. “The whole process is disheartening.”
Much remains the same from the updated plans Burk submitted in April, who is seeking a zoning change to raise the maximum allowable height at the site. The project’s tallest structures will be closer to Royal Lane on the north side.
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On the project’s south side, there will be a 50-foot setback. The height will be a maximum of 54 feet for the building’s first 50 feet before gradually increasing. The project is 175 feet away from the nearest structure on that side.
Multiple restaurants and retail will be scattered throughout the 7-acre site. Improving walkability and green space remains a focus. The development will include a public half-acre green space, and the group plans to plant at least 200 trees on the site, which was heavily damaged after a 2019 tornado.
A large majority of the project’s parking will be below grade, and Burk and company plan to make traffic and pedestrian improvements around the site.
Burk’s team is building fewer apartments than it could on site under SB 840, which allows apartments and mixed-use residential in all zoning districts that allow office, commercial, retail or warehouse uses without a need for rezoning.
The development team estimates that number at 800.
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A Kimley-Horn traffic study done on behalf of the developer shows that Burk’s Preston and Royal project would produce less traffic than development under the current zoning, which allows for low-rise residential, retail and other uses.
Burk’s team is expected to officially submit the revisions this week. The request is expected to appear before Dallas’ planning and zoning commission at its June 25 meeting.